I had a family reunion this weekend near Dinosaur Valley State Park. And our dogsitter fell through at the last minute so I went to Yelp and found a place to keep Ike. I went to their website and it looked cute and sweet and not at all clinical or impersonal.
So I dropped him off on Friday morning and it was relatively uneventful. Until he saw me walking away and I heard him bark and saw his tiny white paw reaching through the fence. I laughed and my heart broke into tiny pieces, but I kept going. I was sure he’d be fine.
Fast forward through a family reunion where Dave KILLED (what, you didn’t know it was a comedy show?), I found out that some of my cousins are cool, Dinosaur Valley is probably lovely in the winter, Glen Rose is actually adorable until you go to Brookshire’s, which is sort of like being in a horror film and any minute now I was probably going to slip in a puddle of blood I hadn’t noticed. Fast forward to arriving home today.
The kennel isn’t open to the public on Sundays, but they WILL do a pick up between 4 and 6 if you make the arrangements ahead of time and agree to pay the $25 fee. It’s only $35 for another day so it seems absurd. But I didn’t want to leave Ike any longer than I needed to, so I said we’d be happy to pay the fee and pick him up Sunday.
“Oh. Um, what time?”
“Well, your website says I can pick him up between 4 and 6.”
“Yes, but can you give a specific time?”
“How about 5?” That would give us enough time to possibly have lunch with family or get in a quick swim or something before heading home.
We got home at 4:25, unloaded the car and rested for a bit. Then we went to pick up Ike. Both of us missed him and were looking forward to seeing him. Poor guy is a rescue dog and I was wondering how being kenneled again would affect him. Did he think he’d ever see us again? Would he act out? Would he be mad at us? Would he forget us if he got to snuggle with another human? Could I possibly anthropomorphize him more?
So we got to the place in good spirits. Dave said, “We’re coming, Ike!” as we got out of the car. We got to the front and it was locked. We were a few minutes early, so we waited. Then at about 5:03 I called them and left a voice mail. We waited. At 5:20 I left another voice mail saying they could call me tonight otherwise I’d be there at 7am when they opened.
I was PISSED. I’m ready to leave a nasty review on their Yelp page, but I don’t know the whole story. Maybe there was a miscommunication between the employees. Maybe there was an accident and someone had to go to the hospital and nobody could notify us. Maybe everyone who worked there spontaneously combusted.
All I know is they’re getting a review on Yelp tomorrow and we’ll see if what I find out in 12 hours or so from now can save them.
In the meantime, my husband who didn’t want a dog is throwing a tantrum. “IIIIIIIIIIIIke! IiiiiiIIIIIIiiiiiiike! I miss Ike! I miss his stinky breath. I miss the way his little feet smell like pee.”
Dude has lost it. More on this as events unfold.
UPDATE: We went this morning at 7am and the lady said, “You were supposed to pick up Ike yesterday, right?” We said yes and she said, “I am SOOOOOO sorry!” I waited for an explanation. She went on to say that the girl who was supposed to meet us was delayed because her car broke down and when she got there to feed the dogs and let them out, she’d been so frazzled she just forgot about the pick-up.
She didn’t charge us for the extra day and obviously didn’t charge us the Sunday pick-up charge.
My anger had worn off because Ike was safe and taken care of and they were super nice about it. We just missed our dog and the lady said she could understand why, he was a great dog. He’d had no incidents and she said her daughter fell in love with him and walked around holding him. Which is good, because that guy loves his snuggles. As do we.
